TC Centering Guides

Look on YouTube, there’s a guy that uses a last light. Pretty interesting

Load slow and easy with frequent stops to check your progress. When you need a major adjustment, turn your wheel hard over and move minimally forward or back. With patience and practice you’ll find loading your camper becomes second nature. I’ve traveled about 30,000 miles loaded in the last 2 1/2 years and I doubt that a tenth of them were with a perfectly positioned camper. I’ve never noticed the difference.

The main reason I travel by truck camping is to relax. I obsess about nothing. My truck is matched to my camper. My camper is pretty much dead on where it should be and very well secured. Everything is in excellent mechanical condition. Whatever happens will be dealt with,and life goes on.

Practice,practice, practice... then relax and enjoy the day.

I never found loading my TC to be particularly challenging. Sometimes one attempt and sometimes two or three.

I made my own centering guides using White UHMW plastic. It helps a lot while backing up when you can see them back there on initial loading and then on the double checking. I included stops for the rubber bumpers so the front to rear gets positioned as well.

Maybe I find it super easy because I’ve handled big trucks all my life, but all you have to do is square up to the camper in front of it before you back under.
You want to avoid making a bunch of corrections while halfway in.
Just look in your mirrors and square up so the same amount of camper is on each side.
And look all the way to the back of the camper.
You’ll also know if it’s straight because you can’t see around the camper in your mirrors when it isn’t.

It's never easy, no matter what appliance you use. I've had 15 years of good luck with my Lance Centering Guides. These keep the box centered once you 'drop' it in (not slide in) position. I have about 1/2 inch of clearance space on each side between the guides and the sides of the TC. The box stays put even when you are on a sharp angle.





But these are kind of old school now. Search back about 8-10 years in the archive to see a wad of well crafted, homemade guides that do the trick even better the the Lance guides. Since I had the camper off, I cornered the lower edge with 2 inch aluminum angle screwed to the floor and the joint textured with spray rubber.



jefe

I am lucky and have a pretty flat concrete floor. I have car dolleys that I use, stacking 2 pieces of plywood on each then under the jacks. i can actually move the camper a few inches when it is not centered in the bed, don't think I could scoot it across the floor though. Then when I get close to the front I can put the truck in neutral and roll it back til it touches the camper or however far back or forward it needs to go. Works pretty well. Out on the road your on your own though:) Also unloading I believe it helps the jacks to not come into a bind when the camper is lifted, able to roll around a small bit.

Kind of anal, so centering is very important to me though probably not in the scheme of things.

I don't use any vertical restrictions on the bed, instead relying on a rubber mat on the bed/plywood/rubber mat on top With the idea if things get to moving around two pieces of vertical metal or even one at a corner is going to do more damage vs. 4000# of camper sitting on rubber held down by gravity. If that gravity should let loose there will be a lot of interesting things going on.

For $40. I put small backup camera under the front lip of the truck bed.
It projects lines on the bed and removes all questions about centering.
My truck sat quite high so it also was easy to verify that the camper was high enough.

Hmmm. I just look at the wheel wells. If you're square with the TC to start with, the wheel wells stay at the same spot as you back in.

If not, they tip you off to minor adjustments needed to get things straight as you go in.

If you're way off, just start over.

guidry wrote:
Look on YouTube, there’s a guy that uses a last light. Pretty interesting

What is a last light?